


Pretty Poison Apples

by CaramelShadows



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Choking, Drugging, F/F, Hallucinations, Poison, Slave Training, dubcon, noncon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 04:37:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6269914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaramelShadows/pseuds/CaramelShadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raven signed the book and inherited her mother's powers and morals. Raven has been waiting for the right opportunity to get a real happily ever after of her own, the only way she can - depriving her counterpart of her own.</p><p>Apple never expected to wake up to this.</p><p>(This fic was started after Way Too Wonderland and before Dragon Games, and is not canon-compliant with anything released after Way Too Wonderland.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Apple woke up slowly. She felt strangely like she was underwater. Everything was wavery, and she felt so heavy... Not like she normally felt on waking up, springing out of bed with a song. Why did she feel like this?

She tried to lift a hand to rub at her eyes, but even when she mustered the strength to shift something that felt like lead, something was caught around her wrist, keeping her from lifting her hand more than a few inches. She tried to look to see what might be stuck - did her sheets get twisted around in the night? - but her eyes wouldn't focus, and all she could make out was a dark blur.

She tugged at her wrist again, but was distracted by the click of footsteps approaching. A purple blur swam into view above her. "Raven? Is that you?"

A low chuckle was her answer, and ice-cold fingers tipped up her chin. "Can't you see me, Apple? I didn't think the apples would take you this hard."

"Apples? But I'm not supposed to wake up to _you!_ "

The dark blur of Raven's mouth widened. "Whatever made you think, Apple, that I would be content to follow our story?" Raven ran a fingernail lightly down Apple's neck, making her shudder. "A story that's supposed to end with me in chains? And really, you look so much better in them than I do."

Apple yanked at both of her arms, trying to get a hand up to push Raven away, but she only succeeded in rattling what were definitely chains.

"Y-you- but- I'm supposed to sleep in a glass coffin, until Daring comes for me!"

Raven slapped her, almost casually. "Aren't you listening? I told you we're not following the story. There's only room for one happy ending between us, and you don't deserve it."

Apple whimpered, blinking back tears at the sharp stinging in her cheek. "Raven, this isn't like you!"

"Isn't it?" Raven said. "You're the one who wanted me to sign the book so badly, Apple. You're the reason I have my mother's powers in full - and my mother's scruples. Really, I have you to thank for opening my eyes. Courtly, too. Why shouldn't we take what we deserve? So I bided my time."

Apple's lip trembled. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Well," Raven purred, "I did consider just killing you outright. No enchanted sleep, no waking. But it seemed to me that I could have much more _fun_ than that." She ran her thumb lightly over Apple's lips. "After all, the Evil Queen should be able to break people to her will, and what more appropriate target than my destined nemesis? As you have spent the years going to _such_ great lengths to remind me. One might almost think you wanted to be under my power."

"This isn't how it _goes_ ," Apple protested.

"Then I think it's time the story favored someone new." Raven laughed shortly, then the blur of her face receded from Apple's field of view. "I think I'll leave you some time to come to terms with your new arrangements. But I wouldn't want to leave you in discomfort. That wouldn't befit such a _special_ princess as you, now would it?" She gestured, and the chains binding Apple to the bed rattled, lengthening enough to let her sit up. "There's more of that pie you loved so much last night on the table next to you, if you're hungry. And apple juice." Raven laughed again, and her footsteps vanished down the hallway.

Apple rubbed at her eyes furiously, but her vision refused to clear. Squinting to her left, she could see the shape of a table, with a pale blur on it that was presumably the pie. She could smell apples and cinnamon. Her stomach growled, and she tried to fold her arms over it before being caught short by the chains.

She stared down at her hands. If the pie was what she had eaten last night, it must be what the poison was in. But the juice was apple too, and just as likely to be poison. If she ate more of the pie, presumably it would knock her out again, and her vision would keep being horrible.

Then again, what benefit was there in being awake? She was stuck in the bed, she couldn't see, and there was absolutely nothing to do other than be tormented by the smell of food and get steadily hungrier. Unless there was some way to escape. She leaned forward enough to get her hands into her hair and felt around urgently, to emerge triumphant when she found a hairpin. She applied herself to trying to pick the locks of her cuffs, but after several minutes of scraping the pin over every inch of the smooth dark metal, she was forced to conclude that there was no lock to pick. Raven much have created them with magic, and created them seamless.

Next she tried calling a bird. When that didn't work, she broadened her call to all small creatures of the woods. Nothing happened. She was alone, in utter silence save for the sounds she made herself.

Giving in briefly to despair, Apple curled onto her side as best she could, one arm stretched uncomfortably out behind her by the chain, and cried herself to sleep.

When she woke up, she could see a little better, and she didn't feel so heavy, but her stomach was roaring. Either the pie was enchanted to be hot or it had been replaced while she was asleep, because it was still steaming and putting off the most appetizing aroma of apples that Apple had ever smelled. She groaned and clutched her head. Her eyes were grainy and sore, and her skull ached. Her mouth tasted foul. She looked longingly at the glass of apple juice.

"It was probably the pie," she whispered hoarsely to herself. She was so thirsty. Biting her lip, one of her hands reached out almost despite herself and grabbed the glass. She whimpered when she touched it. It was ice cold and beaded with condensation. She closed her eyes for a moment, and couldn't help but imagine how it would feel wetting her mouth and sliding down her throat. With a convulsive movement, she yanked the glass to her face, slamming her lip between the glass and her teeth and bloodying it in the process. She hardly noticed in the ecstasy of the cool liquid on her tongue. Before she realized it, the glass was empty.

Apple blinked at it, then set it back down on the table carefully. She looked around the room experimentally, trying to focus on the far wall. Her vision hadn't fully recovered yet, but it didn't seem to be getting worse again.

The wall sprouted an arm that reached out for her. Apple threw herself backwards with a shriek, but the arm fell short of her and retreated back into the wall. She snatched up the blankets, cocooning herself as best she could in an instinctive defense against monsters, and peered frantically around the room. In the corners of her eyes, stones shifted.

She heard breathing behind her, but when she twisted as best she could to see, stiff with terror, there was nothing there.

She had almost started to get used to seeing things - though she couldn't help crying, another hiccuping sob startled out of her with every new lunge - when she started feeling things. At first her arm just itched, and while it took a little maneuvering to get her other hand far enough over to scratch it, Apple didn't think much of it. But then it started to feel like something was moving on her, up and down her arms, like beetles crawling on her skin. When she didn't look straight at her arms, she could _see_ things crawling on them, things with far too many legs and mouths, that scurried and wriggled over her skin. Trying to knock them off did nothing, and eventually she resorted to clawing at her arms, trying to get the feeling to go away. Her tears dripped into the scratches and stung.

Apple sniffled, and the smell of apples wafted into her nose. She blinked, then turned to look at the pie. Unconscious and unable to see straight sounded a lot better than her current situation - and she was still _hungry_. Wincing as the movement pulled at her bloodied arm, she took the pie from the table. Raven had not seen fit to provide her with a fork, so she was reduced to eating it with her hands. It was all she could do to keep herself from shoveling it into her mouth so fast she choked, once it hit her tongue. It was the best pie she'd ever tasted, or at least her hunger made it seem like it was.

When she finished, she blinked blankly at the plate for several long moments before she processed that there was nothing left. She reached out to set the plate back on the table, but halfway through the motion, unconsciousness claimed her like the stroke of a guillotine, and the world went black.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Apple woke slowly, again, but this time she expected it. Her limbs once again felt like lead, and she didn't bother trying to move. She lay, eyes closed, waiting for the effects to recede enough that she could sit up. With consciousness, her senses slowly filtered back, and distantly she felt her arms ache. She felt the edge of a memory that would tell her why that was, but she didn't pursue it. If her mind was keeping it from her, perhaps it was to protect her.

Distantly, she realized that she could hear singing. The voice was low and throaty, though she couldn't make out the words, and it took her several long minutes to realize that it must be Raven. She knew Raven had wanted to take Music, but Headmaster Grimm had forbidden it, and Apple had never heard her sing. Raven's voice was beautiful, and it seemed to reach inside of Apple. She shivered, though it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

The song broke off into a pealing laugh. "Awake, are you?" Apple gave in to the inevitable and opened her eyes. Her vision still swam, but not as badly as last time - perhaps leaving them closed for longer had helped? She had the strangest feeling that it was the music that had made the difference. Raven stood above her. She tsked. "You have made quite a mess of your arms, haven't you? I'll have to do something about that."

Apple swallowed. "Do something?"

Raven set a bowl of water down on the bed beside her. "They need bandaged, of course." She lifted a cloth out of the bowl and began cleaning the blood off of one of Apple's arms.

Apple stared down at them in horror, the edges of memory filtering back. "Why?"

"I don't want you getting infected," Raven said, infuriatingly reasonable.

"Why did this _happen_ ," Apple insisted.

Raven shrugged. "I have no control over what the apples do to you. Our destinies wrote it in stone. Anything the Evil Queen gives to Princess White is a poisoned apple. I assume they made you see something you wanted to get off of your arms." Apple saw a flash of wriggling legs, and shook her head violently in an attempt to banish the memory. "If you're going to do it again, I'll shorten the chains so you can't reach. I didn't bring you here to tear yourself to shreds."

Apple felt a flash of panic at the idea of not even being able to sit up. "No! No, I'll," she gulped, "I won't do it again."

Raven smiled and patted her hand. "Good girl."

Apple smiled back despite herself, then throttled down her unexpected pleasure at the praise. It shouldn't matter to her if Raven approved of what she did. Raven was _evil_ , Apple shouldn't want her approval!

Apple sat quietly while Raven finished bandaging her arms. She didn't want to look down at the scratches, but looking up from her arms left her either staring at Raven or twisting her head awkwardly off to one side.

"There, done," Raven said, and Apple jolted back to earth realizing that she had spent the last several minutes staring at the indistinct play of light on her captor's purple hair.

Captor. That was the right word. The Evil Queen was her enemy. Even if Raven bandaged her arms with gentle hands. Anyway, Raven had _poisoned_ her. Apple chose not to think about the fact that she had spent years begging Raven to do exactly that, and glared at her. "Why are you poisoning me?"

Raven laughed again. "I'm not. I don't need to. Thanks to the Storybook of Legends, anything apple that passes from my hands to yours is poison, and I can't give you anything else. If we hadn't both signed the book, you wouldn't be affected like this - but due to your _tireless_ efforts, Apple dear, I signed too. And here we are." She cupped Apple's cheek in one hand, and Apple flinched away without thinking. Raven withdrew her hand to bestow another stinging slap across Apple's cheek. "That wasn't very nice, princess. I've been nothing but kind to you. You could try a little harder to be courteous. After all, this is what you wanted - the Evil Queen to take you away, and feed you apples." Raven sighed. "But if you don't want me here, I won't stay. I'll leave you to your own devices again, Princess White, and we'll see how you feel next time you wake." Leaving Apple no time to muster a response, Raven turned and left the room, the click of her heels receding again into the distance.

After Apple had stared at the walls until she was bored enough she wanted to scream, she decided that she might as well pass the time waiting for Raven's next visit in unconsciousness. Raven had said 'next time you wake', after all - what point was there in passing time in anything but sleep? There was nothing to do but wait.

And she was thirsty. Apple stared at the glass of juice, biting her lip. Maybe if she drank it and then immediately ate the pie, she would pass out before she had time to see things? It seemed worth a try. She nodded decisively and grabbed the glass, draining it in a few swallows. She then made the quickest work of the pie she could, and this time she managed to get the plate back onto the table and lie down before unconsciousness claimed her.

This time, however, it wasn't black. The hallucinations had followed her into dreams, but here they were... different. Crystals all around her showed hundreds of reflections of Apple, Raven, Raven and Apple. Apple surrounded by admirers. People screaming and running away from Raven. Raven seeing her story and refusing to sign the book. Apple begging her to sign. Raven signing at last. Apple throwing herself between Raven and Courtly.

As she continued to turn, the images progressed from the past through the present (Apple felt a jolt low in her stomach watching Raven slap her) and into what seemed to be possible futures. Apple in chains. Apple trapped in the heart of a tree. Apple in a glass coffin covered in cobwebs and grime, deep underground. And then - Apple kneeling at Raven's feet, looking up at her with an expression that made the Apple watching go cold and hot all over. Apple on a throne one step down from Raven's. Apple writhing in ecstasy under ice-pale hands and purple magic. The watching Apple blushed and tried to turn back to the past, but now all the images surrounding her were either of being trapped and forgotten, or of giving herself up to Raven - and looking happy to do it.

The watching Apple squeezed her eyes shut and pinched herself viciously, thinking that even the lunging things were better than the confused mess of terror and revulsion and desire churning in her gut, and woke panting, sweat-soaked, on the bed.

She wasn't sure if the blur in her vision was from the pie or from suppressed tears. She couldn't stop thinking about the images. Closing her eyes only made it worse, leaving vivid images of Raven _touching_ her on the inside of her eyelids. Apple strained her eyes open, trying not to blink, and glared at the ceiling.

She should be hoping for Daring to rescue her, to defeat Raven and take her home to be queen. That future seemed like a distant dream now, the visions the Storybook of Legends has presented to her like something unreal. Even though her dream had shown many futures and the book only one, the dream felt more real to her now.

Apple sat up in bed so that she could wrap her arms around her knees. The chains stopped her short of pulling her knees all the way to her chest, but it was still comforting. She stared at her skirt, which was growing increasingly grimy with pie crumbs, and wondered wildly what her hair looked like. Her hair and clothes were normally impossible to render anything but perfect. Maybe that was the greatest proof that Raven had won.

She sniffled and rubbed irritably at her eyes, leaving off quickly when the dream visions inserted themselves again.

Apple wondered in sudden horror if Raven was ever going to let her off this bed. It had been less than a day so far, probably, though it was hard to judge when she spent most of it unconscious, but her body was starting to make certain demands known. Not to mention that she desperately wanted a bath. She'd never felt so _grubby_ before. Then again, she'd never slept three times in the same clothes before. Princesses didn't.

She jerked her hand up to feel the top of her head, and while she wasn't really surprised to feel that her tiara was missing, the added indignity was enough tip her over the edge into despair. Apple buried her face in her knees and sobbed, accompanied by flashing images of herself bound and forgotten.

Eventually she cried herself out and straightened, feeling even grubbier. Her nose was running, and she didn't have a handkerchief. The visions had finally faded, but the empty silence left behind in the room was horrible in its own way. Nothing moved, and her damp skirt stuck to her legs. It was cold and horrible feeling, and Apple shivered, then found she couldn't stop shivering.

The food wasn't back yet, and she didn't want to risk returning to those dreams anyway. And she needed the bathroom. Gathering her courage, she managed to croak out, "Raven?"

For several long minutes there was continued silence, and Apple started to fear that Raven was going to forget about her already - but then she heard the click of footsteps advancing towards the door. She couldn't help huddling into a smaller ball as she heard Raven turn the latch, feeling irrationally like a disobedient pet.

Raven stepped into the room, her face softer than Apple had seen it since this began. "You called?"

Apple swallowed again and nodded convulsively.

"What for?"

"I have to use the bathroom," Apple whispered. She wanted to add a plea for a bath, but that felt like stretching her luck.

To Apple's intense relief, Raven nodded. "Of course." She gestured at Apple, and the chains came loose from the bed, attaching to each other instead in an arrangement that looked like it would be inconvenient but possible to get around in, though they definitely precluded trying to run.

Apple had no intentions of trying to run. Where would she go? She had no idea where she was, and Raven could quite evidently hear her slightest whisper from nowhere nearby. The only result would be to annoy Raven further, and that was definitely not something that would make Apple's captivity more pleasant.

Raven gestured again, and a door opened in the wall behind the table. Apple hurried towards it, trying not to take steps longer than the chain between her ankles allowed, but still occasionally being caught back.

She made it into the bathroom and relieved herself, then came out of her laser focus to look around. It was a tiny bare stone room, with nothing but a toilet and a sink. At least she could wash her face, she thought glumly.

Apple turned on the faucet and splashed water on her face, invuluntarily gasping at the shock of the cold on her skin. Her eyes felt swollen. After cleaning the evidence of her tears and running nose off of her face, she looked speculatively at the water. Maybe she could drink it without seeing things. She cupped her hands in the clear stream and brought them to her mouth, but as it passed her lips she tasted the cloying sweetness of apples and spat it into the sink in panic. Raven hadn't been lying about anything she gave Apple turning to apples. Apparently it applied to anything in her castle that Apple ate or drank.

With a shiver at the idea that she might never taste anything but apples again, Apple turned and stepped back out into the main room. Her cell, she supposed. She was still trying not to annoy Raven, and hiding in the bathroom seemed like something she would find annoying.

Straightening her skirt pointlessly and biting her lip, Apple looked up at Raven through her eyelashes, like somehow that would protect her. Raven still stood casually in front of the door, and now there was a possessive smile on her face that looked so much like the dream visions that Apple stumbled back a step without thinking.

The smile fell from Raven's face, and at a sharp gesture from her a fistful of magic jerked Apple's chin up and another shoved her forward. Apple whimpered and barely kept from falling, staggering to a halt inches from Raven. Apple's skin tingled from her captor's nearness, and she felt an absurd desire to step forward again and press herself against Raven - like they were opposite poles of a magnet. She locked her hands together and stood up ramrod straight.

Raven circled Apple slowly, looking at every inch of her. Apple was uncomfortably reminded of watching her father's groom inspect a new horse, and she shivered. Before she had time to think better of it, she blurted, "What do you want from me?"

" _Everything_ ," Raven said, her breath hot on Apple's ear.

"Daring will save me," Apple whispered, though it sounded more like a prayer than a belief.

Raven's eyes darkened, and she gestured. A band of purple smoke appeared around Apple's throat, then tightened. Apple instinctively tried to gasp, but the pressure removed any possibility of that. She raised her hands hopelessly to claw at the collar, but her nails found no purchase on the smooth magic-created metal. As she ran out of air, her vision blurred. Surely she couldn't have angered Raven enough for her to want to kill Apple? Her head spun, and she dropped to her knees, only for the pressure on her throat to suddenly slacken.

Through the blood thundering in her ears, Apple heard Raven say "Good girl. Bow to your queen." Apple wanted to object that Raven would never be her queen, but she felt drunk on air and her skin tingled all over. Raven smirked, clearly visible even with Apple's still-blurred vision, and reached down to pinch one of Apple's nipples hard. Apple squealed in protest. "I think you liked that, Miss White," Raven murmured. "Your body certainly did. These are begging for more." At another gesture, a platform of magic lifted Apple off of the floor and up to the level of Raven's chest. Raven slid her hand up Apple's thigh, drawing a whimper and an involuntary jerk of the hips from Apple when Raven's fingers reached the cleft of her legs. Raven grinned in a way that reminded Apple of snakes and foxes. "And so is this. You're dripping."

Apple wasn't sure if she was trying to escape the touch of Raven's cold fingers or to court it, but her ego would only allow one of those to be true. "S-stop!" she managed to stutter out.

Raven's face closed like a shutter slamming down, going from malicious amusement to cold detachment in an eyeblink. Apple quailed, suddenly questioning if resisting Raven was really the best path.

Before Apple could finish reasoning out whether expediency should win out over pride, Raven's hand was gone. The platform of magic that Apple rested on jerked sideways and dropped her several feet onto the bed, which the chains fused with again, shorter than they had ever been before.

"I hoped you had begun to learn," Raven said quietly, "But it seems you still need time to come to terms with your situation. I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable, however, so I'll leave you with a present." She gestured at the edge of Apple's field of view, and the collar around her neck tightened slightly - not enough that she couldn't breathe, like before, but just enough to make breathing take work.

Apple wanted to protest that choking her was hardly a gift, but her head spun, and between her legs pulsed hotly, and she couldn't force a word out past the constriction on her throat.

She closed her eyes, hoping she could fall asleep again quickly and escape this, but the pressure on her throat and the throbbing of her breast and groin were far too distracting. She squirmed, though there was very little she could do to change her position, and only succeeded in making the situation even more distracting from friction.

Apple wept, and she lay aching for a long time before consciousness finally gave way to uneasy dreams.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

When Apple woke, the chains were looser, and the collar was gone. There was juice and pie on the table again. Her stomach grumbled, but she didn't want to go straight to sleep just yet. Looking miserably at the food, she also realized that she had no idea what to do and when. If she drank the juice first, and waited, the horrible lunging things came, but if she had both at once, she _dreamed_.

Were the dreams so bad? whispered a corner of her mind. Apple had the uncomfortable feeling that if she hadn't tried to avoid all of the visions, she could have chosen one and dreamed through it. Her mind flashed to the images of her writhing under Raven's hands. She redirected it determinedly onto the ones where she knelt at Raven's feet. Maybe... Maybe the dreams would tell her what it could be like, if she gave in, how it would feel. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

Apple knew that she should be waiting for Daring to save her, but everything was so wrong. This was nothing like her story. Daring seemed more like a dream than the visions had.

Just one where she was sitting by Raven. That couldn't be that bad, and then she wouldn't have to see the lunging things, or all the visions of herself left to molder forever. Moving to put action to decision before she could change her mind, Apple grabbed the glass of apple juice and drained it, then demolished the pie. Once again, she managed to lie back down before unconsciousness claimed her.

She was surrounded by crystal visions again, but they were larger. Mirrors the size of doorways stood in a ring around her, each one showing one of the possible futures she had seen before. They alternated, images of herself locked away and forgotten with images of her beside Raven, so that she couldn't look at one without seeing another. The visions were still determined to remind her of both sides of the coin.

Apple turned and found the one with the image of her kneeling at Raven's feet again. It looked... safe. Nothing was happening in it. It couldn't be that bad, if this really worked like her instincts said it did.

Holding her breath and hoping, Apple stepped towards the mirror and stretched her hand out to touch it. Her hand passed through the surface of the mirror with a sensation rather like dipping her hand in water, but as soon as her fingers crossed the threshold there was a _pull_ , and then the mirror was gone.

 

Apple knelt at the Queen's feet, smiling up at her. The Queen was beautiful. Apple was glad that she had the privilege to serve someone as beautiful and powerful as the Queen.

The Queen looked down with a tenderly possessive smile and stroked a hand over Apple's cheek. Apple shivered pleasantly, closing her eyes and leaning into the touch. The Queen's touches felt wonderful. Apple was lucky to be granted them so often. The Queen rarely touched anyone else. She said only the best was good enough to be worth a Queen's attention.

Apple was grateful that she had been chosen to be molded into the best. The Queen could have chosen from dozens of other former princesses, but it was Apple that she had chosen to serve the Queen, Apple that she dressed in purple gowns to match the Queen's own, Apple that wore her collar to proclaim to all the she was owned by the Queen.

Everyone was ruled by the Queen, but only Apple was _hers_. Overcome with gratitude and fealty, Apple bent to kiss the Queen's feet. The Queen chuckled and stroked Apple's hair, and Apple almost purred with pleasure at the reward.

No one in the world was as lucky as Apple was.

 

Apple woke up slowly, smiling, and laid motionless for several minutes basking in the pleasant afterglow of the dream. Eventually, she opened her eyes, and came back to herself with a rush. She wrenched her shoulder half out of its socket hurling herself over the side of the bed to vomit onto the floor.

She curled into herself as best she could again, shaking with adrenaline and weakness from throwing up. The dream had been wonderful, and that was the worst part about it. She couldn't remember ever feeling so good. But everything about it was _wrong_. Apple was a princess, not a possession - she was heir to a kingdom! Raven wasn't supposed to win, and more than that, Apple wasn't supposed to be _happy_ about it.

Looking at Daring had never felt anything like she had felt looking at Raven in the dream.

Apple swallowed, then made a face. Her mouth tasted horrible, and her nose burned. She looked at the glass of juice. Maybe if she just rinsed out her mouth with it, it would be okay? Apple sniffled, wishing she had a handkerchief.

"I'll just eat the pie and go back to sleep," she whispered to herself. She took a mouthful of the juice, swished it around her mouth, and spat it onto the floor with the rest of the mess, then ate as much of the new slice of pie as she could manage. She had to eat slowly, with her stomach still uncertain it wanted to accept anything, and before she finished or put the plate back, unconsciousness claimed her once more.

 

Apple's dreams this time held no crystal mirrors. She dreamed herself chained in the heart of a tree, unable to move, and every time her dream-self closed her eyes, she remembered what she had been offered, what she could have had. Visions of light, of shining thrones and silken dresses, inserted themselves in flashes over the 'real' dream, where she was covered in dust and cobwebs and rotten lace. When she tried to keep her eyes open, the dust got in them and burned, and when she tried to blink it out, she was assaulted with vision after vision of worlds where she had surrendered. With hot tears running down her cheeks, she wondered if this even was a dream. Maybe the room where Raven had bandaged her arms was the dream.

 


End file.
